Dr. Firouz Shahrokhi has been selected as the 2017 Coffeyville Community College Distinguished Alumnus and will be recognized during the Distinguished Alumni Luncheon to be held on Oct. 27 on the CCC campus.

The luncheon will be at 12 noon on Oct. 27 in the CCC Cafeteria. Reservations will be accepted through Oct. 23. Costs for the luncheon are $15 for a single person, or $25 for a couple. Those interested in attending the luncheon can contact Sally Presson at 620-252-7070 to make a reservation.

Dr. Shahrokhi was born in Tehran, Iran. He came to the U.S. on Dec. 20, 1955, directly from high school to Coffeyville Community Junior College (former name of Coffeyville Community College).

After CCC, he attended Oklahoma University where he earned his Ph.D. in Aerospace & Mechanical Engineering. He also completed post-doctoral work from Princeton University. Dr. Shahrokhi became a U.S. citizen in 1964.

The career of Dr. Shahrokhi has been academic and scientific with a joint appointment at the University of Tennessee and Vanderbilt University where he retired as Emeritus Professor after 38 years.

Dr. Shahroki was a participant in the NASA Astronaut Training program and the military program called MOL (Man Orbiting Laboratory, former name of the Space Station). However, after the Space Shuttle Challenger’s accident on Jan. 20, 1986, civilians were removed from the astronaut program. Nonetheless, Dr. Shahrokhi participated not as an astronaut, but in training of the astronauts. He has trained 12 astronauts in 23 missions.

Dr. Shahrokhi has authored 15 books in space technology and innovations in clean alternative energy sources. He has also authored 85 peer reviewed journal publications and numerous presentations. He has been major professor to 48 M.S. theses and 16 Ph.D. dissertations.

Upon his academic retirement in 2003, Dr. Shahrokhi served as President of PowerAvenue Corporation based in the U.S. with operations in Switzerland, Germany and Italy. He is the CEO and Founder of FrontierX Technology LLC and designer of a regional telecommunications satellite, the Zohreh Satellite System. Additionally, he has served on a variety of boards with the most recent being the U.N. Technology Bank.